Gaye Guenther has had water in the basement of her farm home near Osler, Sask., for seven weeks.
Her husband, Joe, and son, Chad, have lost about 300 of their 1,600 acres to excess rain this spring and have also contended with mammary infections and foot rot in their herd of about 100 dairy cattle. The farm has received about 680 millimetres of rain this spring and summer.
The Guenther century farm, Rhein Holsteins, was a fitting place for federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to get first-hand information on how this year’s unusual weather has damaged yield and farmer incomes.
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Ignatieff toured fields and then met privately with farm group leaders July 18 at the Guenther farm. In a later news conference, Ignatieff said it was clear to him that weather and crop conditions will have wider reaching effects.
“This is going to have a chain reaction right across Canadian agriculture,” he said. “There’s a sense of the ripple effect in other sectors.”
Ignatieff noted all farm leaders told him they welcomed last week’s announcement of $450 million for flood relief but said existing business risk management programs must be improved.
Regina MP Ralph Goodale said the latter sentiment was unanimously expressed by farm leaders. He added that the $30 per acre flood relief program will be insufficient considering an anticipated $2.4 to $3 billion reduction in farm income this year caused by millions of unseeded and drowned acres.
Ignatieff’s visit was part of a cross- Canada tour the Liberal leader has undertaken to meet more Canadians and allow them to get to know him.
